Cape Canaveral (Florida, USA), Jan 17 (LaPresse) – NASA’s new gigantic lunar rocket headed today toward the launch pad, in preparation for the first lunar flight of astronauts in more than fifty years. The round trip could begin as early as February. The 98-meter-tall rocket began its slow journey at 1.6 km/h from the Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building at dawn. The six-kilometer trip could last until sunset. Thousands of space center workers and their families gathered in the cold dawn to witness the long-awaited event, delayed for years. They assembled before the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket emerged from the building.
The cheering crowd was led by NASA’s new administrator Jared Isaacman and all four astronauts assigned to the mission. Weighing 5 million kilograms, the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion crew capsule on top were transported aboard a massive crawler used during the Apollo era and the shuttle era. It was upgraded to withstand the extra weight of the SLS rocket.
Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and Christina Koch, long-time NASA astronauts with spaceflight experience, will be joined on the 10-day mission by Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, a former fighter pilot on his first spaceflight. They will be the first people to fly to the Moon since Apollo 17’s Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt concluded the triumphant lunar landing program in 1972. Twelve astronauts have walked on the lunar surface, beginning with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969.